Happy Monday/Tuesday, everyone! It promises to be another very hectic week on the home front. Writing, editing, reviewing…no rest for the wicked, right? Well, what better way to start off such chaos than with a book meant to give you a new way to look at the world and critically solve problems? Today, I am reviewing Thinking in Systems: Strategies for Problem Solving, Planning and Critical Thinking by Alex J. Golding.
Thinking in Systems breaks down a method of viewing the world and its problems called systems thinking. Rather than looking at groups/organizations as stems with removable branches and problems as strictly cause-and-effect, systems thinking involves seeing groups/organizations—even the whole universe—as a large system with several individual, sustainable, but still interlinked subsystems that work best together even though they exist independently. The book goes on to show many real-life examples of systems and systems thinking as well as explain the benefits/drawbacks of this way of thinking. By the end, you will have a good idea of how to use systems thinking in your professional, social, and personal lives.
Golding provides an in-depth look at this nontraditional way of thinking. He gives very clear examples of what systems are and how systems thinking plays out in real life, which helped to clear things up for me any time I became confused. I especially appreciated examples such as the World Trade Organization meeting protests and the downfall of the USSR. Of course, I rarely got confused while reading this guide, but that might be a result of my own way of thinking and my background in critical thinking. I went to a project-based high school which emphasized critical thinking and I have thought about the world in a manner very similar to systems thinking, and so I think it was easier for me to follow the concepts discussed here than it might be for the average reader.
Due to the thoroughness of the book’s information, it might be a slow read for many people. The ideas it expresses are also abstract and hard to describe, and so it might take re-reading certain sections in order to fully digest what Golding is saying. In general, Golding uses simple language that most readers can follow. He also explains the most important terminology in relation to systems thinking in the second chapter. The concepts themselves are what drag down the writing at points, such as in the critical thinking sections. Golding explains these ideas as well as can be done, but it also would have been nice if there had been resources available for readers to do more of their own research on the subject.
I also think that the reader could be eased into the subject better. Golding introduces the reader to systems thinking and explains what it is in the first chapter, but it feels that he rushes right into the “what” without giving much idea as to “why”. After I re-read the first few pages, I understood why I should care about this way of thinking. Before that, though, I felt like I had been pushed off an airplane without a parachute to ease my descent.
All that being said, Thinking in Systems by Alex J. Golding is a great introduction to a topic which to me is fascinating. The examples are very helpful, the definitions are as clear as can be for such abstract subjects, and the coverage is thorough. However, the book is very long (around 312 pages) and requires multiple readings in order to take complete advantage of the information and practices inside it.
You can find Thinking in Systems by Alex J. Golding on Amazon as both an eBook and in print.
Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011